Sunday's letters: False assumption

Sunday

Feb 18, 2018 at 2:00 AMFeb 19, 2018 at 4:01 PM

Any inference that our medical profession was somehow complicit in Larry Nassar's criminality is unwarranted.

I feel compelled to respond to the recent repost on Feb. 2 by an author (syndicated columnist Virginia Heffernan) understandably outraged, as are we all, by the crimes of Larry Nassar, who sinisterly hid behind his medical license to groom and obtain access to his victims, assaulting them under the guise of a “medical procedure.”

I regret the author chose to demean the medical profession based on the false assumption that Mr. Nassar was engaged in performing a “medical procedure” simply because HE declared so. The court saw through this baseless defense and found him guilty, sentencing him to prison for the rest of his life. Any inference that our medical profession was somehow complicit in this criminality is unwarranted, undeserved and unnecessary.

As a physician and dean of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) Carolinas Campus in Spartanburg, I help train some of the best and brightest young people aspiring to improve the health of our state, our military and the American public as a whole. Our mission as medical professionals is built upon the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship. The core of our philosophy begins with trust between patients and their physicians, a moral and professional obligation we swear an oath to uphold.

Now in my 20th year in serving the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners, an entity responsible for licensing and disciplining physicians to protect the public, and as the dean of one of our state’s four medical schools, I stand in unison with our medical board, medical school faculty and training programs in our state in condemning the heinous behavior of Larry Nassar. We will not condone any physician hiding behind a medical license as a defense to assault patients.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I am seeking election to the 4th Congressional District of South Carolina. I am running to help repair the partisan divide with common-sense strategies that will benefit the people who live in the Upstate.

Today, strict ideology has become a hindrance to policy development, and populism has distorted the truth. Our country needs a focused vision that puts aside party affiliation and pursues policy objectives founded in rational thought and mutual respect, for the benefit of all citizens.

Speaking in platitudes on key issues such as jobs, guns and taxes only placates the American people until they realize years later that they are no better off. Meanwhile, the politicians who built empires by peddling fear and hate remain in power. It is time to build support for our government by treating people with respect and appealing to the highest aspects of human nature to move the country in a positive direction.

The greatest fear of our political leaders is that one day the people will realize that the power to build a better nation begins in their own home rather than in Washington. How we raise our children, treat our neighbors and care for a stranger dictate the type of country we will be in the future. No government mandate, political divide or manipulation of our fears and worries will overpower the innate sense of responsibility we have to make our home, our community, our state and our country the brightest possible light upon a hill.

Animus toward another because of subjective opinion of character flaws is not impeachable, but mainstream media readers and viewers wouldn’t know otherwise. That’s intentional.

An unprecedented 90 percent negative mainstream media on Donald Trump since the campaign almost daily for over two years is intentional. Russian collusion meddling with our republic’s sacred right to vote is clearly becoming true — except the collusion appears on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the DNC, the DOJ and the FBI. Misleading readers that “maybe” saying s---hole countries is worse than corruption and likely treason at the highest levels of our executive, legislative and judicial branches is intentional.

Demonizing a created personification for voters to hate, by projecting upon that person everything you say, do and have done, then denying it, is intentional.

Abusing open borders, the visa lottery, DACA and chain migration, and paying for such with tax dollars for a popular vote, is intentional. Guilting and shaming using DACA children while using and ignoring legal American dreamers is intentional.

The list literally goes on for miles. Mainstream media is intentional in its complicity.

A free press should be unbiased, balanced and fair on politics. A mainstream media that is appallingly biased, unbalanced and unfair is intentional. A newspaper of liberal sources without equal conservative counterweight is intentional.

This type of intentional is why mainstream media is fake news. Fake is not just untrue, it’s intentionally contorted and skewed. That you feel compelled to defend and justify your paper is telling.

Let your readers understand that this animus is not against just Trump but anyone in opposition of the left. That animus will survive.

Let your readers understand more fully what is before they vote again.

Jerry Broome, Spartanburg

Medicaid program

As South Carolina considers requiring able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work or volunteer for benefits, we must ensure the program is a win-win for participants and their communities. To do that, it will take substantive programming that ties volunteerism to getting people job skills and into the workforce.

As vulnerable adults begin contributing to their community, they feel a sense of pride, accomplishment and dignity. They are viewed as part of the solution — not part of the problem.

This isn’t just wishful thinking. The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), a national nonprofit, has seen transformation of individuals and communities across the country when people are able to contribute, volunteer, work and see the benefits of their actions. NCFL works to eradicate poverty through education solutions.

Over the past 30 years, we have impacted more than 2 million families in 150 cities and 39 states, including South Carolina. These accomplishments can be duplicated under new Medicaid requirements:

— Volunteerism through Family Service Learning: Families are strengthened through two-generation literacy programs, such as NCFL Family Learning, that include Parent and Child Together (PACT) Time, Parent Time, and family-to-family mentoring.

— Access to high school equivalency or GED certificate programs: Positive results could be further amplified by pulling together Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to create a comprehensive system.

In doing so, South Carolina has the opportunity to improve the human condition and move people to self-sufficiency, breaking generational cycles of poverty.

Sharon Darling, president and founder, National Center for Families Learning.